General Meeting Information

Any citizen is welcome to speak at public meetings during the Requests to be Heard & Citizen’s Comments agenda items. In order to provide Borough Council with information prior to the meeting so they are prepared to discuss a citizens’ concern, a Request To Be Heard Form may be completed and submitted 5 days prior to the meeting at which you plan to speak.

Guidelines for the Conduct of Borough Council Meetings

In order to facilitate an orderly progression of the business before the Council, the following General Guidelines shall apply to the conduct of Borough Council meetings:

The regular and special meetings shall be called to order at the time stated in the advertisement, or as soon thereafter as a quorum is present.

In addition to Public Hearings required by statute or ordinance, Council shall, at its discretion, advertise Public Hearings on any issue it may deem appropriate. Rules for the conduct of Public Hearings shall be established by Council and announced at the onset of each Public Hearing.

At the discretion of the President, or by majority request of Council, the President may issue public comments on any issue previously before the Council or on any new issues, including placement of new items on the agenda.

New subjects to be introduced by other than the Mayor, Solicitor, Engineer, Mayor, Member of Council, Employee Department Head or representative of the foregoing, shall be submitted in writing by the Friday before the meeting at which the introduction is proposed, together with a brief outline of the item to be introduced. Requests must be signed by the petitioner.

Citizens requesting to be heard on issues previously before the Council shall register that request with the Borough Manager prior to the Call to Order.

Citizen comment shall be regulated by recognition from the Council President and shall be limited to the portion of the Agenda set aside for that purpose.

No citizen discussion shall be entertained during any other part of the agenda.

The foregoing regulation shall not apply to persons serving in an official capacity with the Borough, including but not limited to Solicitor, Engineer, Mayor, Employee Department Head or representative of any of the foregoing. These persons will be recognized at the discretion of Boards and Commissions may be invited to participate in discussion at the discretion of the Council.

Citizen comment shall be limited to an overall time span of 10 minutes, with a 2-minute limit per person. No citizen shall speak a second time until all citizens present have had an opportunity to comment.

The foregoing time limits shall be monitored by the Council and time expirations may be called at the discretion of the Council President. At the discretion of the Council President, persons may be declared Out Of Order. The Council President shall have the right to request the removal of a disruptive person from the meeting and shall have the right to request a member of the Police Department to remove disruptive persons who do not become disruptive or leave voluntarily.

Approved minutes shall be available for inspection during normal working hours of the Borough Office.

A folder containing such correspondence as Council determines to be “Routine Correspondence” shall be placed in a separate folder and made available for inspection by Council at anytime.

Subdivision and Land Development Plans are available for inspection during normal working hours of the Borough Office from the date of filing until the date of scheduled action.

Unfinished and New Business items may be added to the agenda, if submitted by the Friday before the meeting, by any member or Council, the Mayor, Solicitor, Engineer or any Employee Department Head, subject to the discretion of the Borough Manager.

Executive Session business shall be conducted in accordance with the Borough Code or Sunshine Laws of the Commonwealth. All action pertaining to items discussed during an Executive Session shall be taken during the regular meeting. Actions taken shall be recorded into the minutes of the meeting during which the Executive Session was held..

A regular meeting shall be advertised in the Strasburg Weekly News along with all other meetings of the Borough at the beginning of each year.

The Borough provides a lectern, table, easels and screen. Presenters are required to provide 1 complete set of information for each council/commission member (larger size drawings – at least 1 per every two members of council/commission). Audio/visual aids used in their presentations should be viewable from 30 feet away. Presenters should have at least 5 copies of their materials available for use by the public.

Any of the foregoing procedures may be waived by a majority vote of Council.

These guidelines may be amended from time to time by majority vote of the Borough Council.